This past fall I spent a lot of time designing, developing and building an updated website for Sentinel Benefits and Financial Group. They were going through a re-branding and it seemed like the perfect time to update their website.

Their previous website had become bloated with too much information, making it hard for customers or potential customers to find what they were looking for. Sentinel offers so many investment and insurance options that it was hard to cull through all of the information. This is where Single Source, the agency where I work, came in.

After a few attempts to create the architecture, it was decided that we would build four separate sites aimed at each of Sentinel’s targets. Members (subscribers), Employers, Advisors and Investors would have their information right at their fingertips. For example, there is no reason why an Employer would have to sift through information aimed at Advisors.

While we were hammering out the architecture, I also started designing and building the site. At the same time, Single Source hired a writer to clean up all of the content that was on the old Sentinel site.

Knowing that some things (the logo, navigation, etc) had the potential to change, I fully built this site using CSS. After the site was mostly finished, I went in and added CSS style sheets for IE 6, IE 7 and IE 8. I waited until the end for this because if I did have to adjust something, I didn’t want to adjust the CSS sheet AND the three IE hack style sheets. Plus, there was a separate style sheet for each of the four areas of the site.

An interesting note, the flash animation that appears on the front page of each section is the result of a miscommunication. I had originally envisioned something completely different. But I wasn’t there to present my design and it was presented as an “iTunes-like” animation. One of those little “mistakes” that ends up working out for the best.

Another obstacle we encountered was that I wasn’t able to actual work on the client’s server. Because they have very sensitive materials on there, they have significant firewalls in place to protect their customers’ information. I built the site on one of our test servers. This later lead to additional testing once we handed the site over, but we were able to make the launch date. There were a couple of things that needed to be tweaked after the launch, but I was able to work alongside a very helpful IT guy at Sentinel. My general experience with IT people hasn’t been great, but Brad helped to change my perception.

I’ve never worked harder (or longer hours) on a website, but the information I learned during this massive project has changed the way that I build websites.

On a personal note, my wife was the true MVP of this project. She didn’t complain that I was getting home around midnight for two and a half months. We found that by the time she got to work, I was just starting my commute. She would call me from work and we’d be able to chat for about an hour. Judging by my cell phone bill, AT&T was true beneficiary of the project.